The big news today was all about the dollars and not so much on the marketing sense.
First Nintendo revealed it's cutting the price of the Nintendo DSi and Nintendo DSi XL by $20 on Sunday, Sept. 12. Kind of a dumb move, actually - sales will plummet for the next two weeks!
The new Nintendo portable lineup is:
- Nintendo DSi XL: $170
- Nintendo DSi: $150
- Nintendo DS Lite: $130 (no change)
Speculation is that this sets the stage for the Nintendo 3DS to come in around the $200 mark when it launches sometime between now and March 2011.
Then Microsoft threw a mad lob to Sony (which still offers free online multiplayer and the similarly-priced PlayStation Plus pay-for-perks service) by raising the rate on Xbox Live Gold subscriptions by $10/year. Annual subscriptions jump to $60 November 1, or you could pay $10/month ($120/year) or $25/quarter ($100/year).
Of course, you can find $40 subscriptions now and they can be stacked, so it's up to you whether you want to pony up $80 now or take your chances later. It would have taken the sting out if Microsoft had announced a net new feature (and not just the already announced ESPN, Video Kinect and benefits we've had for some time now) or at least the return of recently cancelled Gold member benefit, 1 vs. 100...
Comments (2)
I've had some time to consider this now and in an attempt to avoid excess flaming of XBL which I've recently been accused of I'll simply say this.
With a $10 price bump it's becoming harder and harder for Microsoft to justify the only way you can play online is by paying the Live fee. If silver members could just play online even if they weren't allowed to speak or didn't get discounts on the live store and were restricted from every other benefit (NetFlix, ESPN, 1v100, whatever else) this wouldn't be a major issue. It would barely be a minor issue.
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Couldn't. resist. expanding:
Some of us believe it or not don't have netflix for whatever reason. Some of us would be ok with a barebones simple play with my friends and nothing else experience and even the Wii gives that to you out of the box.
Posted by Wolfkin | August 30, 2010 4:40 PM
Posted on August 30, 2010 16:40
I am really pissed off about the $10 price hike, I don't even use most of the features of gold aside from online play so I really don't see why it should be increased. PSN is doing just fine without having a mandatory subscription fee.
Posted by Jrittmayer | August 31, 2010 11:15 AM
Posted on August 31, 2010 11:15